Huge bill...£7k

Spit · 28 Nov 2016 at 21:53

Hi guys, don't know if there is anything that can be done but I thought I would ask the collective wisdom of OcUK.

We run nearly 100 sims through our company on Vodafone. One of the sims has never been used over the last year but a bill has come in for £7000 on that particular number from gambling sites. We should have locked the spare sims up but didn't and that one has gone missing. After speaking to Vodafone they said because its not been reported stolen or missing its not their fault. Surely there should be some sort of cap in place?

Anybody experienced this or know of anything we can do?

Cheers.

Rimsy · 28 Nov 2016 at 22:13

Sack everyone and do something to their letterboxes.

Destination · 28 Nov 2016 at 22:32

Report it stolen?
Involve the police, ask vodaphone for location data relating to the purchases?
If the process starts, if they keep the money, isn't that holding onto stolen money?

Diagro · 28 Nov 2016 at 22:35

gambling sites?

How has it been charged to vodaphone??

I would request they give you the data for where the device was when it was uing it and how they were able to bill the sim

insane200 · 28 Nov 2016 at 22:40

Wouldn't the Imei number of the phone it was used in not be logged with Vodafone, also if you have the number, keep trying to ring it while at work to see if anybody's phone rings.

The1nonly1 · 28 Nov 2016 at 22:49

Not Vodafones fault if sim has gone missing and not reported to them or police if stolen.

unwashed potato! · 29 Nov 2016 at 00:00

i think it's pretty ridiculous if a sim can run up a massive phone bill on gambling websites. fair enough it can run up a bill by rining a premium number, but that should be it.

Spit · 29 Nov 2016 at 00:12

Cheers guys. Getting all the call log info tomorrow hopefully.

edscdk · 29 Nov 2016 at 06:08

The1nonly1 said:
Not Vodafones fault if sim has gone missing and not reported to them or police if stolen.

100 sims to one company... I bet average bill per sim has been £40..

Without question they let 1 sim run up 7k bill?

I'd have expected the sim blocked and a phone call at £400

This is the carriers fault, they knew what was happening... 100 sims op is a valued customer, at the first opertunity they screw him? Even if it was a member of staff it should have been blocked when something looked suspicious and a phone call made...

smilertoo · 29 Nov 2016 at 06:13

I thought they now had a duty of care to report unusual bills once they'd gone past a set limit.

ivrytwr3 · 29 Nov 2016 at 07:07

Report to the police before the thief disposes of the sim. If he's gambling then he must have tied his gambling account to his bank account.

robj20 · 29 Nov 2016 at 08:07

If Vodafone continue to be unhelpful don't forget to move your custom else where.

Spit · 29 Nov 2016 at 10:15

Yeah it stinks really as its unusual activity. The sims are actually used in PDA's so this sort of activity is even more unusual.

Did the cap the government impose get implemented?

Psycho Sonny · 29 Nov 2016 at 13:24

ivrytwr3 said:
Report to the police before the thief disposes of the sim. If he's gambling then he must have tied his gambling account to his bank account.

Nah you can use all sorts of money transfer sites. Doesn't need to go through bank accounts. You can then transfer the money to your cousin in Romania/Nigeria, etc who then transfers it to his account and withdraws the cash or uses it to pay for things he needs or wants off ebay, etc and launder the money that way.

Plenty of dodgy cash transfer sites out there.

Richdog · 29 Nov 2016 at 13:27

Spit said:
Hi guys, don't know if there is anything that can be done but I thought I would ask the collective wisdom of OcUK.

We run nearly 100 sims through our company on Vodafone. One of the sims has never been used over the last year but a bill has come in for £7000 on that particular number from gambling sites. We should have locked the spare sims up but didn't and that one has gone missing. After speaking to Vodafone they said because its not been reported stolen or missing its not their fault. Surely there should be some sort of cap in place?

Anybody experienced this or know of anything we can do?

Cheers.

Why have you only noticed this now, and not on the previous monthly bills? :confused:

Not de-activating the spare SIMS is in breach of mobility good practises and nothing short of negligence.

Biffa · 29 Nov 2016 at 14:15

edscdk said:
100 sims op is a valued customer

With Vodafone, you need to have 1000 SIM's to be a valued business customer, maybe 500 at the least.

FrankJH · 29 Nov 2016 at 14:21

Fairly sure the answer is no said:
i think it's pretty ridiculous if a sim can run up a massive phone bill on gambling websites. fair enough it can run up a bill by rining a premium number, but that should be it.

Data charges over a year I can easily see it being that much

to the Op, I hope you get away with it , but its hardly Vodafone's fault.

Spit · 29 Nov 2016 at 14:29

Its on this months bill, £7k over a few days. Hundreds of text messages from a gambling site.

DampCat · 29 Nov 2016 at 14:53

That really sucks, hope you can get it sorted.

If it makes you feel better, my brother in law was the regional manager of IT for some Law Firm in the middle east. He was given a phone that had "unlimited roaming data" given the nature of his job, he managed offices in 6 countries. Anyway we went on a round the world trip and used it a fair bit. He came back to a £55,000 bill. Apparantly there was some ludicrously low cap for "fair usage". They managed to make some deal with the telecomms provider. So there's hope.

SC0TTRS · 29 Nov 2016 at 14:58

I managed an account for a company which had 250 SIMS with EE.

They were all capped, international numbers disabled, hotspot disabled.

This was requested the last time it was renewed as default, and removed as and when needed to the individual SIM.